


Not In So Many Words

by lynwrites



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, James Potter - Fandom, Lily Evans - Fandom, jily - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 18:45:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4533120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynwrites/pseuds/lynwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One-shot. Seventh-year Jily fluff, set during the Christmas holidays. That's really all there is to it, really.</p><p>Word count: 3k+</p><p>Excerpt:<br/>Dear Lily, Lils, Lil, Evans.</p><p>Merry Christmas. The snow outside is falling really beautifully today, but knowing you, you probably haven’t noticed, with your nose stuck in a book or something. I’m writing this two days before Christmas, by the way. Just so you know.</p><p>Sheesh, two lines in and I’ve already messed up. Again. But I promised myself I’m not rewriting it this time. Remus says I’m wasting parchment, and Sirius was about to prevent me from writing the letter at all. So do put up with me.</p><p>Speaking of which, I don’t know why you do that now. Put up with me, I mean. But thank you. I’m glad you do.</p><p>This letter is going to pieces. Merlin, I thought I was good at these things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not In So Many Words

“Lily. Lily.” Someone was shaking her in what she considered too violent for this ungodly hour. She gave a disgruntled “hmph” into her pillow, attempting to burrow deeper into her blankets.

“Lily!”

Lily Evans turned her face towards the sound of the yelling, blearily opening her eyes to see Mary Macdonald’s excited face grinning down at her.

“What?” She grumbled. Merlin’s sake, what time was it?

“It’s Christmas Day!”

Lily squinted at her. “And?”

Mary frowned at her, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction. “So, presents.”

She was seriously rethinking whether she appreciated all of the seventh-year Gryffindor girls staying back in honour of their last Christmas at Hogwarts.

Lily let out a loud sigh. “Well,” she mumbled, “it had better not be earlier than six a.m. right now, Macdonald.”

“It’s…nearly six.”

She groaned into her pillow.

“Come on-“ Mary was effectively cut short by a pillow slamming into her face. Across the room, a disgruntled voice called, “Shut it, will you?”

Lily raised an eyebrow as Mary emerged from the floor and flung the pillow back at the speaker, one very annoyed-looking Helen Thomas. “I think you’ve just woken the whole dorm, Mary.”

“But Christmas!” Mary protested, wildly gesturing at the pile of presents at the foot of her bed. “And,” she went on, narrowing her eyes at Lily, “I only meant to wake this one. Who knew Lily was so cranky in the morning?”

“I’m cranky before six a.m.,” the girl in question corrected. “The reason for you never having seen this side of me is because there is no reason to wake someone up before six.”

“Ah, but now it is currently one minute past six-“

“Oh, give it a rest, you two,” Helen interrupted, sitting up and shoving her blankets aside. “Besides,” she added grudgingly, glancing appraisingly at the heap of presents by her slippers, “presents are kind of worth it.”

“May as well wake up, then,” a new voice sounded. Dorcas Meadowes clambered out of her bed, nudging the last girl in the seventh-year dormitory awake. “Up you get, sleepyhead. Mary and Helen will be making so much noise you won’t get any sleep, anyway.”

Sophie White, the only Muggle-born in the dormitory aside from Lily and who she had counted on to protest, huffed and unceremoniously swung her legs over the side of her bed. “Fine.”

“Am I the only one truly stung by the injustice of this?” Lily demanded of no one in particular.

“Lighten up, Lily.” Dorcas suddenly smiled mischievously. “Isn’t there a present from a particular person that you should be looking forward to in your pile?”

She ignored the fact that her cheeks were rapidly turning the same shade as her hair. “Speak for yourself,” she smirked back.

Dorcas went red even faster than Lily and gave a funny little twitch, which Lily assumed was her attempt at a shrug, and hopped back onto her bed, pulling her presents with her.

Helen rolled her eyes. “It’s not Valentine’s Day. Trust you two to ruin the magic of Christmas.”

Without looking up, Lily picked up her wand and gave a casual flick in Helen’s direction. Helen ducked as her presents flew over her head and landed on her bed, narrowly missing her ears, and glared indignantly at Lily.

She raised her hands innocently. “Magic. Christmas. There you go.”

Helen muttered something Lily suspected was not in the least bit complimentary under her breath and started picking at the wrapping on one of her presents.

Mary, who hadn’t heard a word of this, gave a little cheer as a small avalanche of sweets poured from an opened present in her hands onto her bed. “This day has begun very well indeed,” she announced, throwing a pack of fudge from Honeydukes to Sophie. “Thanks, ‘len.”

Helen grunted in acknowledgement, absorbed in reading a letter.

“Those presents aren’t going to open themselves, you know,” Dorcas told Lily teasingly. “And they aren’t going to bite.”

Lily, reluctant to leave the warmth of her blankets, waved her wand, causing her presents to land in a scattered heap beside her. “Fair enough.”

“How’s Petunia?” Sophie asked quietly.

She held up a piece of paper with the simple words “Merry Christmas” written on it and a pencil taped to it. “At least she’s still sending me presents.”

“I’m sorry,” Sophie murmured.

She shrugged, turning away from Petunia’s pathetic note and picking up her parents’ instead. “It’s okay.”

“Heads up, Lily!” Mary yelled as a pack of Chocolate Frogs soared far over Lily’s head and smashed into a wall. “Oh. Whoops.”

“See, this is why you aren’t on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Mary.”

“Oh, shut up,” Mary laughed.

Lily folded up the letter from her parents, which had been far more reassuring than Petunia’s, her mood considerably lighter, and turned to the rest of her pile.

“I wonder,” she mused out loud, “if there’s an order to open presents in. That would be so much easier.”

Dorcas snorted. “Seriously? You can just open them all at the same time. That’s how Mary does it, anyway.”

“I think I’ll open the ones from you guys next,” Lily continued, ignoring Dorcas. “That is, if you guys have given me any,” she added, a mock scowl on her face.

“Mine’s the lumpy one,” Mary announced. Lily undid the fancy ribbon of the said package with some trepidation and carefully pulled the wrapping open, lifting out a thick, oversized cream sweater. The note attached read: ‘Since you’re always complaining that you’re cold, here you go. Now stop doing those Heating Charms everywhere we go because it’s annoying. Merry Christmas!’

“Thanks, Mare,” she laughed. 

Mary shot her a grin. “Sure thing.”

Sophie had meticulously wrapped a hardback version of one of Lily’s favourite Muggle books and a fair amount of tea and coffee packets – “You make me feel like an old cat lady, Sophie” – in beautiful silver wrapping paper. Dorcas had gotten her a huge bag of chocolates from Honeydukes, knowing her sweet tooth, and Helen had given Lily a book on wizarding history, which she eagerly scanned through and nearly threw at Mary when the witch gave a cough that sounded oddly like “nerd!”. 

“Oh, woah, thanks, Lily,” Sophie called, waving the bag of chewing gum Lily had given her happily. Helen opened her mouth, staring quizzically at the unfamiliar colourful packaging, then seemed to realise something, and closed it again.

Lily grinned at her. “Sophie told me she loves that stuff, but she never remembers to bring any to Hogwarts.”  
“Wouldn’t be surprised at that,” Helen said, throwing a wink at Sophie. “She forgets about everything.”

“I do not!”

“Well, then, when’s Mary’s birthday?”

Sophie spluttered. “I-“

Shaking her head and leaving them to it, Lily hopped back onto her bed, pulling Mary’s sweater over her head. She thoughtfully asked Mary if she could put a weak but permanent Heating Charm on it, which proved to be a slight mistake – “Lily, I specifically said it was to stop you from doing those, not make you want to progress to permanent ones!” – and it was a good five minutes before Mary ran out of steam and let her go back to her presents.

She picked up a thin parcel and shook it curiously, which wasn’t usually a very good thing to do to presents of the magical nature, but she didn’t think much of it until a little group of tiny balloons burst out of the package, each popping the moment they hit the ceiling of the dormitory, and a shower of sweets landed on her, pelting her from every direction. Dorcas chuckled at the stunned look on her face. “Who’s that from?”

Rummaging through the mess of sweets, she finally discovered a small note with unfamiliar, elegant cursive spiralling across the page.

_Lily,_

_Merry Christmas! Hope the sweets are to your liking. Also, sorry about the little balloon explosion. I was practicing some complex charms and decided to give my skills a bit of…practical application. (Tell Dorcas I want details on how shocked you looked.) Auror training is going well, and yes, before you ask, Frank and I are well, too. I hope seventh year’s going well for you, what with your being Head Girl and N.E.W.Ts coming up! And I wish you and a certain Gryffindor all the best._

_Love,_  
_Alice_

Alice Teone was three years her senior and had gone to train as an Auror, but not before the Gryffindor girl had formed a strong friendship with Lily. The recipient of the letter had unknowingly gone red again, reading that last line. It was with a bit of a grumpily confused tone in which she relayed Alice’s instructions to Dorcas, who consequently went off in peals of laughter. She half-heartedly stuck her tongue out at Dorcas and looked over the state of her bed. Four more unopened presents lay in front of her among the rest of the mess, and she cautiously pulled apart the wrapping of one, taking great care not to repeat the slight catastrophe of Alice’s present.

 _Dear Lily,_  
_I hope you’re well. I know you love History of Magic – or at least, you did when I was still at Hogwarts, though for the life of me I can’t imagine why – and so I thought you’d like this book. May this year go well for you, and tell Isabelle I said hello, won’t you?_

 _Best wishes,_  
_Emmeline_

Emmeline Vance, four years older than Lily and one of the best witches in Hogwarts in recent years, had been in Ravenclaw. Theirs was an unlikely friendship, and if you asked either of them, they wouldn’t be able to remember exactly why they had become friends, but they were, and a friendship is still a valid friendship, regardless of the details. She lovingly extracted the book from the wrapping, careful not to drop it, and gently put it aside, making a mental note to pass on Emmeline’s message to Isabelle Vance, her younger sister, at the next Herbology lesson.

“What’s that?” Helen asked.

“History book from Emmeline Vance,” Lily answered without looking up, shuffling through the wrapping and miscellaneous sweets strewn across her bed in search of the third and fourth presents.

“One day, I will understand why you like History of Magic,” Mary said, “but today is obviously not that day.”

Lily located the remaining two presents and shoved the rest of the mess aside, unwrapping one with yet more unfamiliar handwriting on the outside. A small box filled with Potions ingredients tumbled onto her bed, an envelope falling out after it. She curiously pulled the letter out and skimmed it, a smile surfacing on her lips as she read.

_Lily,_

_Hello! How’ve you been? I hope you’re okay and everything is all right at Hogwarts. You’re excellent at Potions, aren’t you? That’s what I’ve heard from Professor Slughorn, anyway, so I hope these help! Auror training is going really well, but I suspect Alice may have beaten me to that piece of news – an exploding bunch of balloons is far more eye-catching than a flat package of Potions ingredients – but in case she hasn’t, everything is good. Alice and Frank are good, Andrew and I are good, and Emmeline’s mellowed out a little, too. I was getting worried that she was becoming a clone of Professor McGonagall. Give her my best wishes, by the way. I do miss our Head of House. All the best with Head Girl and N.E.W.Ts! And, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the current Head Boy of Hogwarts is dating the Head Girl. Scandalous! (Repeating history, are we? I can’t believe you didn’t tell me first, Lily. I’m disappointed in you.)_

_Write back soon and Merry Christmas!_  
_Marlene xx_

Lily shook her head in amusement and laid Marlene’s letter aside. Marlene Annods was a Gryffindor, the same age as Alice, and they had bonded over Marlene being Head Girl and Lily being a new prefect. And Marlene couldn’t say much, anyway. Her boyfriend, Andrew McKinnon, had been Head Boy at the time.

She turned to the last package sitting on her bed, and hesitantly picked it up. It was square, and felt quite heavy. Her fingers skimmed over the label, her name in a handwriting she knew all too well, and the reason she had saved this package for last.

“Good haul this year,” Mary grinned. “Our last year, really, so I feel no shame in saying that.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Dorcas said, torn between amusement and exasperation, but a fond expression on her face.

“That’s all of mine opened,” Helen pronounced, gathering up the wrapping on her bed in a businesslike fashion and proceeding to dump it all in the wastepaper basket at the corner of their room.

“Me, too,” Sophie said contentedly, biting off the leg of a Chocolate frog.

“Lily?”

She looked up, startled. “Huh?”

“Oh, she’s not opened all of hers yet,” Dorcas smiled, inclining her head at the package in Lily’s hands. “There’s one more left.”

“Ah, we all know who that one’s from. Go on, open it, Lily,” Sophie said around a mouthful of chocolate.

“But-“

“But what? It’s sweet. You guys are sweet. So sweet that I feel like I get cavities from even thinking about you two. Go on. I don’t think he’d play a prank on you.”

Lily remained staring at the package, biting her bottom lip, her hands frozen. The other four girls exchanged worried looks.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Mary asked.

“It’s just – what if he doesn’t like me anymore?” Lily burst out.

Helen blinked. “You’re going to have to explain that one. Why in Merlin’s name would you think that?”

“It’s been six years, give or take a few months. What if – you know – he’s just sick of it?” Lily dropped her eyes to the package, toying with the string attaching the label to it. “What if – “ She swallowed. “What if all he wanted was the chase?”

There was a moment of silence. Then Mary plopped herself next to Lily on the bed. “That,” she proclaimed, “is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever heard. And it’s coming from you, Lily Evans, which makes that even worse.”

Lily gave a small laugh, but made no move to open the package.

Sophie sat down next to her. “No guy chases after a girl for six years and endures the amount of retorts and ways you’ve found to say ‘no’ to a date fiercely if they don’t like her with all of their being.”

Lily hesitated, then – “I’m being stupid, aren’t I?”

“Just a touch,” Dorcas smiled gently.

She still made no move to open the package, picking idly at the string.

“Look,” Helen said with an unusual gentleness, so much so that Lily couldn’t help but look at her in surprise, “We’ve seen you with James these past years, from first-year all the way to the present. And you never see it, because you’re always looking away, but he looks at you like you’re the only star in the sky, and he can’t pull his eyes away from you. His brain pretty much goes to mush around you. And that hasn’t changed or wavered, not even when you guys are arguing. Trust me. You will be fine.”

And it was this, or perhaps the culmination of all their comforts, or perhaps that she couldn’t stand not knowing, that made Lily decide to open the package, pulling the string with shaking hands and letting the box inside fall out onto the bed. She picked up the box, pulling the flaps upward to reveal its contents, and a beautiful green mug presented itself, with lilies painted white etched along the handle. The other four girls slipped away to give her some privacy, going back to their normal morning routines. Detaching the letter and unfolding it like she had done with all the others, she read it, drinking in every word, and it wiped away the last of her worries.

_Dear Lily, Lils, Lil, Evans._

_Merry Christmas. The snow outside is falling really beautifully today, but knowing you, you probably haven’t noticed, with your nose stuck in a book or something. I’m writing this two days before Christmas, by the way. Just so you know._

_Sheesh, two lines in and I’ve already messed up. Again. But I promised myself I’m not rewriting it this time. Remus says I’m wasting parchment, and Sirius was about to prevent me from writing the letter at all. So do put up with me._

_Speaking of which, I don’t know why you do that now. Put up with me, I mean. But thank you. I’m glad you do._

_This letter is going to pieces. Merlin, I thought I was good at these things._

_Anyway, I got you this mug because I know you like green and lilies. Don’t even try to deny it. You might be opposed to being cliché, but you have an oddly large amount of green shirts that you wear on Hogsmeade trips. I haven’t been prying on your wardrobe, I promise. And when you walked past a bunch of lilies in the gardens, I saw you take a deep whiff and then try to pretend like nothing had happened. Your secret is safe with me. Also, I got you a mug because you are a dork with your tea and coffee and warmth, if nothing else._

_I know it’s only been a week since, but Lily – I need you for that Charms project._

_I’m kidding. (Not really. We have two weeks left to finish it. Eight in the common room on Boxing Day?)_

_Since when did I become the responsible one? You’re having a bad influence on me._

_See you, Lily._

__~~Thank you for everyth~~  
~~_Best wish_~~  
~~_Merry Chri_~~  
_Love,_  
_James_

Lily folded up the letter and smiled. She dug through her bag and placed her Charms textbook on her dresser, setting the mug next to it and arranging Sophie’s gift of coffee and tea packets in it. Then she carried the pile of wrapping paper to the wastepaper basket and dumped it in, yelling at Helen to hurry up in the bathroom, seamlessly melting back into the atmosphere of their dorm as if nothing had happened, but with a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth that told her roommates all they needed to know.

Lily Evans had never genuinely, uncontrollably smiled before eight in the morning, but at six forty-five a.m. that day, standing under a relatively cold shower in the middle of winter because Helen had used up all the hot water, Lily Evans broke that record.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Well, that's my first Jily fan fic. This may be a part of a longer fic, but that's a work in progress for now. I'll keep you updated. I hope you enjoyed that, and thank you for reading!


End file.
